Megawide seen expanding infrastructure portfolio

Megawide Development Corp., a listed construction firm, sees profit and topline growth to continue to increase as it books new project deals in its residential portfolio while expanding its exposure to big-ticket infrastructure projects.

At the sidelines of the company’s annual stockholders’ meeting on Wednesday, Megawide chairman and CEO Michael Cosiquien said the firm was looking to book P1.2 billion in profit this year, up by almost 19 percent from year-ago level. He said revenues would also gain about 46 percent to P12 billion.

“The property sector remains robust. And as you can see, the government is trying to roll out more PPP (public-private partnership) projects,” Cosiquien said.

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Other growth contributors could come from the export of pre-cast products within the region, given underutilization at its manufacturing facility. Cosiquien said Megawide was in talks with Singaporean companies although a deal had yet to be closed.

He cited some external risks facing the industry, namely, how economies abroad would react to the lessening of monetary stimulus in the US, as well as operational challenges like finding skilled workers in the Philippines.

But he noted that Megawide had “prepared” for this. “For skilled workers, we have training programs for that,” he said.

The company is also seeing a dramatic shift in its revenue mix. As of 2012, however, Megawide CFO Oliver Tan said 52 percent still came from its traditional business catering to the residential construction sector.

This was followed by 22 percent for infrastructure, 15 percent for office buildings and 11 percent for hotel projects.

Infrastructure will play a bigger role as Megawide ramps up its participation in state-led projects being auctioned off.